PICTURED ABOVE: The EIU Panthers win 61-58 against Western Illinois University during the 2010-2011 Win Stuff game at Lantz Arena.

University Housing & Dining Service’s annual Win Stuff: On-Campus Resident Appreciation Night will return to EIU’s Lantz Arena on Jan. 19, 2012.

The event, held in conjunction with the EIU Vs. Tennessee State basketball game, is a way of providing a night of fun and prizes to those students who have chosen and continue to choose to live on campus. Throughout the game, EIU’s University Housing & Dining Services will be giving away a number of prizes including a 2012-2013 Single Room Upgrade good for the residence halls or Greek Court. The Single Room Upgrade guarantees the recipient a single room for the 2012-2013 academic year at the same price as a regular double room - an estimated value of $1,700. Entry into the basketball game is free for EIU students.

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The Greek Court recontracting timeline is similar to the residence halls in that the process for the upcoming academic year begins in early February. In order to secure a room in Greek Court, a $250 down payment will be due at the time the room & board contract is completed. As always, Greek Court residents are eligible to sign an Early Bird Room & Board Contract.

In an effort to reduce costs and increase their sustainability efforts, three of EIU’s four residential dining centers have gone trayless.

The program, now operational in the Carman, Taylor and Thomas Dining Centers, eliminates the use of dining trays in an effort to reduce the amount of water, cleaning chemicals and energy used in the washing of trays. The reduction in water usage is expected to be measurable in the hundreds of thousands of gallons.

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• Offering many of the services available in the residence halls, University Court Apartments provides the apartment lifestyle to those who aren’t quite ready to give up the convenience of on-campus life.
• With three months of classes behind us, the students have settled in for the long haul. Now you have a chance to look back at their first moments at EIU with these great pictures and videos.
• Save your cell minutes! As an on-campus resident you get free local phone service within the Charleston and Mattoon city limits when you use a landline phone in your residence. Voice Mail is also provided free of charge.
• As part of the Early Alert System, EIU’s faculty, along with University Housing & Dining Services, the Student Success Center, and many other campus departments, are working to indentify those students who are in need of academic assistance and guiding them to the proper resources.
• Join us on Nov. 29, at 6:30pm, in the MLK Union for a truly inspirational talk about hope, survival and the power of forgiveness. Eva Kor, Holocaust survivor and human rights activist, will recount how she and her twin sister survived Auschwitz, Dr. Josef Mengele, and the years that followed their eventual rescue.
• This fall the National Residence Hall Honorary (NRHH) successfully raised over $5,500 for the Mills Breast Cancer Foundation in Champaign, IL. With this most recent donation, NRHH will have donated over $23,000 over the past five years in the name of this worthy cause.

Any current on or off-campus EIU students who signs a 2012-2013 Early Bird Room & Board Contract by Dec. 16, 2011 will automatically receive $100 in Dining Dollars at the start of the 2012 Fall Semester. Plus, all participating students will be entered into a chance to win free room and board for the 2012-2013 Academic Year, or other great prizes.

The $250 housing down payment must be paid by Dec. 16, 2011.
Dining Dollars will be added to the Panther Card of participating students at the start of the 2012 Fall Semester. Paperwork must be completed at the Office of University Housing & Dining Services in the west wing, lower level of the Martin Luther King, Jr. University Union.

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Many things have changed since the beginning of the academic year. Students have become more self-reliant; parents have developed their own interests or are focusing more of their attention on younger siblings; and in some homes, the student’s room may have become an office or a sibling’s bedroom. As a result, weekend and holiday visits back home often provide challenges. Fortunately, there are a number of steps to make sure this time at home is enjoyable for all.

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Decreases to Spring 2012 Semester Meal Plans need to be completed in writing by Jan. 13, 2012.

Request must include:

• Desired meal plan
• Student’s name [printed]
• And student’s signature

Fax all requests to 217-581-6489. Additional Dining Dollar purchases and meal plan increases may be made at any time after the spring semester begins.

Yes! You can live on campus your entire college career! You met a lot of people this year. Just imagine how many more you’ll meet next year, and the year after that. Living on campus past that first year, or even for your entire EIU career, brings with it an unparalleled level of convenience and camaraderie --- and all of that comes with something as simple as an on-campus address

We did a little math and this is what we found:

• First-year freshmen from the Fall 2009 Semester that returned to on-campus housing in the fall of 2010 improved their GPA by .10. Students from the same class who moved off campus their sophomore year decreased their GPA by .10.

Also, during the Fall 2010 semester:

• On-campus freshmen had a cumulative GPA of 2.78, while off-campus freshmen had a cumulative GPA of 2.04.
• On-campus sophomores had a cumulative GPA of 2.92, while off-campus sophomores had a cumulative GPA of 2.76.
• First-year, on-campus transfer students had a cumulative GPA of 2.80, while their off-campus peers had a cumulative GPA of 1.79.